


Put Your Mask On, Simple Indeed

by BritHistorian



Category: 21st Century CE RPF, Dreamcatcher (Korea Band), Kim Se Ri | Alexa
Genre: Coronavirus, Earrings, F/F, Masks, Meet-Cute, agliophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:20:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24294235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BritHistorian/pseuds/BritHistorian
Summary: You never know when you'll meet someone interesting - maybe even while filming a video for a coronavirus safety song!  (Watch the actual video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-kVolThSaE)
Relationships: Lee Yoobin | Dami/Kim Se Ri | Alexa
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	Put Your Mask On, Simple Indeed

It was lunchtime on the Millenasia "Be the Future" video shoot. Dami took her box lunch from the food service worker and looked around to see where she wanted to sit. She saw that the other members of Dreamcatcher were sitting around one of the tables that was part of the set, while the members of In2It were sitting on the floor in the "backstage" area. Then she spotted Alexa, sitting by herself on one of the benches that was part of the set. "That will never do," thought Dami, and went to sit by her.

"Isn't it odd," Dami said as she sat down, "that we're singing a song all about wearing masks, but none of us are wearing masks?"

Alexa laughed. "I was just thinking the same thing!"

"We were never properly introduced," Dami said. "I'm Dami."

"I knew that," Alexa said with another laugh. "I love your videos!"

Dami blushed. "Thank you," she said. "I love your videos!"

They ate in silence for a time, but Dami kept finding her eyes drawn to Alexa's ears and the numerous piercings there. Eventually Alexa noticed and self-consciously raised her hand to her ear. "Is something wrong with my ear?" she asked.

Dami shook her head. "Oh, no. It's just - how many piercings do you have?"

"Fourteen," Dami said, "Nine in this ear and five on the other."

Dami shivered.

"Why?" Alexa asked. "How many piercings do you have?" She made a show of craning her head around to try to see Dami's ears. "Do you even have ears?"

Dami brushed her hair back behind her ears. Alexa took a look and her jaw dropped in astonishment. "You never got your ears pierced?" she asked in amazement.

Dami shook her head.

"But why not?" Alexa asked.

"It hurts, right?" Dami asked. When Alexa nodded, Dami elaborated: "I have a phobia of pain."

"But it only hurts for a second, and they use a gun so it's over with quickly, and. . ." Alexa noticed that Dami was cringing in her seat, raising her hands to cover her ears. "And we can talk about something else."

Dami brought her hands down and sat up straight again. "Thank you," she said with a sigh of relief. "What's it like being a solo artist?" she asked "Don't you get lonely?"

Alexa shook her head. "I'm friends with all my backup dancers, so it's like having over a dozen little sisters!"

"Your dancers must be really young," Dami said. "You're what - an 01 liner?"

Alexa laughed as if this was the funniest thing she'd ever heard. "No! I'm a 96 liner!"

Dami's jaw dropped. "No way - you're older than me?"

"But you're still my sunbae," Alexa said with a nod. "You debuted long before I did."

Dami looked around the set. "Yeah, we were joking earlier about how much this set looked like the 'Love Shake' set!"

"I loved that video!" Alexa said, humming the intro of the song while she did as much of the choreography as she could while sitting down.

"Oh, stop! You're making me blush!" Dami said, playfully swatting at Alexa's arm.

"You're cute when you blush," Alexa said.

Dami's blush deepened. Desperate to change the subject, she said "You did a really good job with the English-speaking part we recorded earlier."

"Thanks," Alexa said. "Actually, I grew up in America, so my English is probably better than my Korean. I didn't come to Korea until I started competing in contests."

"Well, there's nothing wrong with your Korean," Dami said.

Now it was Alexa's turn to blush. "Thank you,' she said. "I practice hard because I want people to accept me."

Swallowing a bite of her gimbap, Dami asked "So what surprised you most about living in Korea."

Alexa took a bite of her food to buy herself some time to thing. Finally, she looked around to be sure no one was listening to them and quietly said "How hard gay people have it here. Back in the US, if a guy likes guys or a girl likes girls, it's not really big deal. It's a little rougher if you're someplace out in the country, like Oklahoma, where I'm from, but here it's like something totally shameful - even in Seoul."

"It's getting better," Dami said. "We've really made a lot of progress in the last few years."

Something about the emphasis Dami placed on the word "we" made Alexa stop and think. "When you said 'we,'" she finally said, "did you mean 'Koreans' or did you mean 'LGBT people'?"

Dami looked around. "The second one," she said quietly.

Alexa's eyes got huge. "You mean. . . ? Me too! I-"

"Okay everyone!" The director's voice cut through all the conversations. "Clear up your lunch trash, then we need Dreamcatcher on set 2. Alexa and In2It, go to your dressing room and put on your second outfit and be waiting outside set 2 for when Dreamcatcher finishes."

"We'll talk later," Dami said quickly, rushing to clean up her trash and go to the other set. Alexa watched her go, then headed to the girls' dressing room to change her clothes.

Only they didn't get to talk later - the fast-paced production kept them constantly on the move, and they finished well before dinner time. When it was time for everybody to go, Alexa quickly grabbed one of the masks that In2It had been stenciling, slipped something inside it, and folded it up. Rushing to where Dreamcatcher were getting ready to go, she bowed as she held the mask out to Dami. "Dami-sunbae, thank you for sitting with me today at lunch," she said quickly. "I wanted to be sure you had a mask."

Dami took the mask and thanked Alexa. With another bow and a quick good-bye, Alexa rushed over to where her manager was impatiently waiting for her.

As Dreamcatcher were in their van riding back to their dorm, Siyeon leaned over to Dami and asked. "So what was up with Alexa and the mask?"

"Oh," Dami said, startled out of her thoughts. "Alexa and I had been talking at lunch about how odd it was that none of us were wearing masks, when the song we were singing was all about wearing masks." She laughed.

"Well, try it on," Siyeon urged.

Dami extracted the mask from her purse, where it had fallen underneath the latest volume of One Piece, which she was in the process of reading. As she unfolded the mask, which had "If you can read this, you're too close" stenciled on the front, she noticed a slip of paper folded up inside it. Unfolding the piece of paper, she saw that it said "Alexa" and had a phone number. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to hide it in her purse before Siyeon saw it.

'Well, well, well," Siyeon said with glee, "looks like someone's very interested in their sunbae-nim!"

Dami could only blush in response. 


End file.
